Oregon Brewers Fest By the Numbers (2015)

Every year since 2007, I've been running an annual feature called OBF by the numbers. Welcome to edition number nine. For extra special fun, I'm going to highlight some of the changes in the decade since I started brewing. But first, let's have a look at this year's rundown. As always, the bolded text refers to 2015, while the text in the (parentheses) are last year's.

The Ten-Year Trend
For the past few years, there has been a trend toward lower-ABV, lower-bitterness beers at the fest. I think this mirrors trends in the craft beer segment, particularly as "hoppy" no longer means "bitter." There are now quite a few 40 IBU beers out there that are absolutely dripping with hops. But the really big trend is in the experimental beers made with fruit, vegetables (potatoes and mushrooms highlight this year's list), spices, and other ingredients (coffee, old tires, dog slobber***). Anyway, behold:

2006

2015

Amber/red

8%

3%

Belgian

12%

15%

Lagers

8%

10%

Creams/Steams

5%

1%

IPAs (all)

27%

21%

Pales

8%

14%

Wheat Beers

7%

17%

Fruit beers

3%

16%

Spiced beers

5%

21%

Other ingredients

0%

18%

All fruit/spiced/other

8%

46%

Beers over 60 IBUs

26%

9%

Beers under 5.5% ABV

42%

47%

Beers over 7.0% ABV

27%

9%

Now all that remains is tasting these beers--see you down at the Fest.
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* 10 Barrel may have brought Swill last year.
** This is hard to parse, but the number goes up each year. In 2006, there were almost no experimental beers.
*** Some of these may not be actual ingredients in beers this year.